This invention relates to a laminated ceramic electronic component. It is concerned with improving the electrical connection between an outer conductor and an inner conductive layer, especially that used in a laminated ceramic electronic component.
Laminated ceramic electronic components such as a laminated ceramic capacitor include a ceramic element. There is a conductive inner layer such as an internal electrode in this ceramic element. Edge parts of the conductive inner layer are exposed to the surface of the ceramic element and an outer conductor such as an external electrode on the surface of the ceramic element is electrically connected with the inner conductive layer.
A laminated ceramic electronic component having the above structure is obtained by baking a raw (green) ceramic laminated body in which the conductive inner layers are formed. In this baking process, the conductive inner layer is simultaneously baked together with the ceramic element.
The outer conductor of the laminated ceramic electronic component may be formed as follows: A conductive paste obtained usually by blending a metal powder and a glass powder with an organic vehicle is applied on a predetermined area of the ceramic element after baking. Then the conductive paste is baked.
In order to meet the demands of size-reduction and high-volume output, in the case for example of a laminated ceramic capacitor, the thickness of the internal electrode is also made thin, for example, about 1-5 micrometer. There are also cases where an internal electrode having a thickness of at most 3 micrometers is provided.
If the thickness of the internal electrode is made thin, as mentioned above, the exposed area of the internal electrode on the surface of the ceramic element also becomes small. When the particle diameter of the metal powder contained in the conductive paste used for the formation of an external electrode is large, comparatively many particles of the metal powder do not contact with the internal electrode. Thus, the electric connection condition between the external electrode and the internal electrode may become inadequate.
Moreover, an internal electrode baked with the ceramic element simultaneously may be in the condition that the edge parts thereof are positioned inside the surface of the ceramic element after baking. In this case, the above-mentioned inadequate electric connection condition will appear more notably.
Consequently, the objective of this invention is to offer a laminated ceramic electronic component which can solve the above-mentioned problem.